So, some people may say we are late to the game in terms of sleep training, but Lyra does everything at her own speed. Plus, we haven’t been able to let her get too upset or she throws up the precious calories we are trying to keep in her. Right now she is at hour three of putting herself back to sleep. At least tonight it started at 8:30 pm instead of 2 am (when she normally does this). Of course, as I write this she falls asleep.  Anyways, I am up so I should finish!

This is how a typical night of “sleep training” goes in our household.

1. It NEVER happens on a Friday or Saturday night. This means I am the one who is up with her. It is not that the hubs isn’t willing to get up, it’s that he works all day and we need him to be functioning. I have kicked his butt back to bed more than once…. unless Lyra pukes.  Then I he helps me remake the bed before I send him packing.
2. Sometime between 12 am and 2 am we hear a little fuss come out of the monitor. We turn on the camera to see if she moving around, hoping that it is just a little blip and she goes back to sleep.
3. Slowly, she starts moving. Do we leave the wonderfulness that is the bed to pat her back in the hopes she goes back to sleep? Or do we let her fuss a little longer and hope she doesn’t fully wake up? ….. Normally we decide to pat her back. At this stage she is still our adorable, lovable ray of joy.
4. We reach into the crib making little shushing noises and pat her back – I should mention, Lyra sleeps on her side due in no small part to her history of vomiting in her sleep – Anyways, she fusses a little more, rolls on her back and then does the one thing we know means trouble……
5. She opens her eyes, looks right at us, and starts blowing bubbles.
6. She is no longer cute.
7. I walk out of the room. Normally I am saying a few choice 4 letter words under my breath.
8. Then comes the extra melatonin (the suspect she doesn’t produce very much), sometimes Tylenol (maybe she has a headache), and the waiting for her to STOP PLAYING!!!
9. That’s the thing, she isn’t even upset. There is no “letting her fuss it out” because there is no fussing. I think  fussing would piss me off less.
10. At this point I am on the couch with the video monitor (remember the whole “hubs needs to sleep” thing?). I have to check on her regularly because she is hooked up to her overnight feed and there is a serious concern about her disconnecting it or pulling out her tube. I watch practice the “pike” position – feet behind the head – and listen to her blow bubbles and raspberries….. it’s really cute at 3 pm.  At 3 am… not so cute.
11. Sometimes she is producing so much spit and having so much fun she gags herself and pukes all over her bed. This is when the hubs comes in! After I change her and he changes the bed, he is sent back to sleep… I don’t think he actually sleeps much though.
12. By this point it is normally around 3 am and I am not the most patient person in the world.  In fact, patience has gone on vacation to the beach because she was about to lose it. I lay down on the couch thinking about how I will word the ad on ebay in the morning. At some point I drift off to sleep.
13. Later on I wake with a start and realize there is no more sound coming from Lyra’s room. Sometimes I drag myself off the couch and return to bed, sometimes I don’t. All I know is, I always wake up to the smell of fresh coffee – that would be the hubs doing.

While it seems like the never ending night when it is happening, I eventually see this face and notice that it is cute again:

I decide not to post anything on ebay (family joke), and we go about our day – although I do desperately try to find a time to nap.

Everyone tells us that we are doing everything correctly, and that it will get better. Until then, coffee is my best friend and I am trying to remember all of those darn breathing exercises from yoga.